This exchange between a man who's nearly 70 and his disillusioned daughter is one of many great truths, nuggets of wisdom offered in writer/director Paul Cox's film, ''Innocence.''

Andreas, the old man (played by veteran Australian actor Charles ''Bud'' Tingwell), recently has rediscovered love by way of reconnecting with his first love, Claire (Julia Blake), a woman he lost touch with more than 40 years ago. In their tender and awkward meeting, age melts away with the years as the two realize their love is still very much alive.

Granted, it's a premise that smacks of sap and melodrama. But even though the film waxes sentimental, it doesn't lose sight of its sense of humanness. Cox settles us comfortably among these two characters, amid the gentle folds of their wrinkled skin and the lines of wisdom that etch their faces. We want to know what they know and share their beauty because we know it's unquestionably and irrevocably real.

''Innocence,'' originally released in the fall of 2001, will be screened next week at the Tate Center theater, and a discussion with Cox immediately follows (story on Page 3). The film didn't receive wide release in this country (Cox is based in Australia) and isn't even available in video stores. So cinephiles won't want to miss the opportunity to see this film on the big screen.

The film's story is a simple one. Claire is married, and not unhappily so -- but then again, not happily so either. Her life with her husband, John (Terry Norris), is one of routine and contentment. But as she finds life and love can be so much more fulfilling, she begins to question everything she's come to accept.

Andreas is a widower who lost his wife about 30 years earlier. As he reveals to Claire, he loved her very much. Because he is the one who seeks out Claire again, we know he is a man with a sentimental heart, as both his daughter and Claire point out at various points. But before his daughter knows he's in love again, she says his sentimentality lives in the past; she tells him he should concentrate on now. Having re-found Claire, he wholeheartedly agrees.

In between Claire and Andreas' current romance, Cox flashes back to their past throughout the film -- vignettes of Claire's hands in Paul's coat pockets; Paul playing the organ as Claire closes her eyes to take in the music flowing from this boy she loves.

What's perhaps most interesting is Cox's treatment of sex between Claire and Andreas. True, there are flashbacks to the impassioned lovemaking of their youth. But he also shows us love between elderly adults without shielding us from the body's age. There is sweetness and vulnerability as Claire demands Andreas draw the shades and close his eyes. In nearly every Hollywood movie released today we watch young, nubile, gorgeous bodies go at it. Here, we're shown this tenderly shared experience in a much more real and believable way. Are we more or less uncomfortable -- and why?

Though the story focuses on Andreas and Claire, John isn't neglected. He's also lived a life of contentment and comfort with Claire. But now he's suddenly forced to face how much she means to him and how much time they've wasted not loving each other more deeply.

Claire struggles with this as well. But as she states on several occasions, she's too old for lies. And as a result of this cathartic affair, she becomes open and honest with everyone in her life, allowing for a clarity we suspect she couldn't have had at any other time until now.

''Life is brutal sometimes,'' she tells her grown son in explanation for her decision to take up with Andreas. ''It isn't possible to resist, to always obey the rules, because you deny the things that really matter.''

What remains for us to question is whether or not Claire and Andreas would feel so strongly about each other had they married and lived a long life together. We'd like to believe they would. But it's a question that ultimately doesn't matter, as we're reminded again and again: All that really matters is the love they share now, because now is all there is. A

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''Innocence'' will be shown at 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 27 at the Tate Theater.